My Tweets, Expanded

One of the funny things about the new Twitter Universe is how everyone is able to reduce their thoughts, both deep and banal into 160 characters. Don’t imagine that this is a blast on Twitter because I actually have learned to enjoy it a bit. However, the idea that anyone is able to have a serious conversation on that thing is pretty insane.

Lately I have been doing my best to tweet things that are interesting once in a while. Sure there are the usual random thoughts, movie quotes or generic face palming, but I also kind of throw out ideas that are really best expressed in blog form. At least I hope so. Maybe these things are best left to word blips, but I’m going to expand on a few things I Tweeted about over the weekend.

Talking Politics: Last night I sent this out: ” I miss talking politics with people able to do more than cheer for one side or the other and paint all people with their own silly brush.”

What did I mean by that? Pretty much what it says. I love talking politics and I love talking issues even more. Yes folks, the two are VERY different things. Politics is a game. It’s all marketing, numbers and persuasion. Issues are important and should (ideally) go beyond politics. For years, I talked politics and issues on my site. I haven’t done that in a long time mostly because I just got sick of the bullshit. So my Tweet was serious. I miss talking about politics with people who are willing to listen to what other people have to say without spouting canned lines, painting everything with a poli-cheer brush and resorting to name calling when things don’t fit their pre-planned script. So the obvious follow up tweets came. Who was I talking about? Anyone specific?Yes and no, and yes….and no. I’m not talking about any one person in particular. However, if you fit into the list below, then you MAY be who I was talking about.

You May Be on Rog’s List of People Who Are No Fun To Talk Politics With If You….

1. Still don’t believe that President Obama was in fact born in the United States of America. People please! We can argue all day about why he dragged his feet on whatever form of birth certificate you wanted to see. We can agree that everyone running for President should be required to show the same ID. But if you still think that there is some giant conspiracy at play to cover up the President’s actual place of birth then we have a problem. If for no other reason than the fact that a conspiracy of that level would have had to have begun when young Mr. Obama was a child. Now I’m a proud papa with great plans for my kids, but covering up the birthplace of an infant on the crazy idea that he might one day be President is a little much. And by little I mean impossibly fucking huge. He was born here OK? Deal with it.

2. You used to know the dead soldiers count by heart, but now are unaware that August was the deadliest month in the history of the Afghan War. It is impossible to deny that the anti-war movement lost a lot of steam, tons of funding and most of its celebrity star power (Sean Penn and a few other true believers stand out as exceptions) when George Bush left office. Most of us can accept this for what it is and many of you are happy to ignore it. That’s fine, but don’t expect me to let you play dumb. If you want to say you are anti-war, then be anti-war. If you want to be honest, you need to say that you are actually anti-any war the George Bush says we need to fight. You also need to admit that you are no longer anti that war now that it is a new President saying that we need to fight it. If “get out now” was your Iraq position in 2006 and you now sit quietly by as more Americans die in Iraq and Afghanistan then you need to be called on your own bullshit. Sorry if that little bit of truth is painful.

3. You use the term Fox “News” in any capacity including air quotes during casual conversation. First of all, you really mean to use single quotes to show the soft of smarmy self-righteousness you’re spouting. If you’re going to be a smug jackass then at least get it right. Second of all, if you still labor under the idea that Fox News is somehow any different than the other networks then you are blind. If you don’t like the political bend of a commentator on a cable news network then you probably should change the channel. Whining about it and pretending that this is some one-way street is just sad. Remember this simple rule. Just because someone has a different political bend than you do, it doesn’t mean that they are wrong, evil, corrupt, stupid or anything less than you. If you can’t accept this truth then go whine somewhere else.

4. You are for or against partial birth abortion without even knowing what the hell it is. Apply this rule to any issue really. If you don’t understand an issue then don’t just automatically be pro or con. If you hate the stimulus package because the President wanted it or if you are in favor of the national health care program because that same President said so then you are doing yourself a disservice. Don’t expect me not to pin you down with deep, probing questions like “why are you for this?” Sorry, I’m such a stickler for details like that. If it ruffles your poli-cheer skirt, I hope you will forgive me.
5. You believe for a second Media Matters or other ‘watchdog’ groups are anything more than attack dogs for certain political ideologies. These things are set up to preach to the choir folks. They take thoughts, words and ideas that they don’t like and further demonize them. They wrap them up in nice little packages and pretend that they want ‘fairness’ when all they want to do is destroy free speech and suppress dissent. If you can’t figure that out and are intent to treat their words as gospel, then allow me five minutes to find an equally offensive organization from the opposing point of view to ‘prove’ that you’re wrong. (Sarcasm completely intended.)
6. You listen to anything Al Sharpton has to say. Seriously folks. Political ideology aside, nothing this man says should matter. He made up a story about a racial gang rape of a child and knowingly pointed a finger at innocent men, accusing them of the worst crime imaginable. When pressed, he told the victims of his malicious smear to sue him. One did, and won. When finally confronted with the price for his lies, the ‘good’ Reverend refused to pay. He let his supporters do it for him. What kind of ‘man’ knowingly accuses an innocent man of taking place in a racial gang rape just to boost your political clout? Back to my point, what kind of person takes ANYTHING a monster like that says? No conversation with Al Sharpton should begin with anything other than “When will you explain your role in the Tawana Brawley scandal?”